Letter writers| Fort Myers News-Press

A recent article which quoted Fort Myers City Council member Fred Burson, stated that the coral-color parking garage is the "ugliest downtown building, and it doesn't fit in with the city's downtown image of grayish and white buildings nearby.""We would like it to complement all of the nearby facilities to create a charming downtown."

What Councilman Bursonand other like-thinkers don't consider is that with no originality and diversity, we are creating a monochromatic, look-alike area that resembles every other city.Fortunately, we have perhaps the last vestige of visual diversity already in place.Let's improve on what we have and let it draw attention to an otherwise increasingly mundane setting.

Since the mid-'90s, my wife and I have regularly visited Fort Myersand watched it grow.Every visit we noticed the very Florida color coral parking garage.Yes, it stood out, but it was a warm reception to the Fort Myers area.

Take advantage of what you have, and instead of destroying it, improve on its ability to garner attention, and make it an asset rather than a liability.Perhaps a large palm logo (for the City of Palms). Some of the most interesting features of an area are what some people may consider ugly, while others appreciate their aesthetic diversity.A little innovational thinking will, hopefully, keep us from being an all gray/white city.

William Bond, NorthFort Myers

Brandon Jetts guest opinion on the legacy of Martin Luther KingJr. was spot on. But one thing he failed to mention was what we here in a county named after Robert E. Lee can do to address racism and that is remove the portrait of the Confederate general that hangs so honorifically in the chambers of our County Commission.This portrait says a lot not only about the values of the county we live in but also the values of the men we have elected who sit under it.Failure to remove this portrait is disrespectful to our Black community and the many others who recognize the portrait as not-so-subtle support of the Confederate cause.It is time for this portrait to be taken down and for our county commissioners to lead the way.And the time is now.

Charlotte Newton, Fort Myers

Robert E. Lee was a son of Revolutionary War officer Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III. Lee was a top graduate of the United States Military Academy and an exceptional officer and military engineer in the United States Army for 32 years. Lee served throughout the United States, distinguished himself during the Mexican-American War, and served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy. He was the husband of Mary Anna Custis Lee, adopted great-granddaughter of George Washington, and Arlington National Cemetery is on their property. When Virginia's 1861 Richmond Convention declared secession from the Union, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union command. During the first year of the Civil War, he served in minor combat operations and as a senior military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Gen. Robert E. Leedied a nationally recognized champion of peaceful American reconciliation.

Stop judging the historical figures of America's past by 21st Century values. These men were a product of the customs and culture of their times. It did not stop them from doing what, in good conscience, they thought was the right thing to do for their country.

At the end of the war these menswore a new oath of allegiance to the United States of America and the Constitution. As part of the healing, Lincoln, against considerable pressure, decided to not take draconian measures against his countrymen. He chose compassion and reconciliation over occupation.

Return Lee's monument to its rightful place.

Cookie Shepard, Fort Myers

Let's try and think logically for a minute and try to get past the emotion, rhetoricand outrage. You say you want freedom and you want the government to get outof your private life. You're against mask mandates and vaccine requirements, right? No government is going to tell you what you can and can't do! OK, got it.

Now, help me understand how it can possibly be OK for that same government to insinuate itself -- literally -- into a woman's body and tell her she cannot choose to have an abortion. A choice of the most private kind -- one that should be between a woman and her doctor.

So, all of you freedom fighters, either mask up and get vaccinated or GET OUT OF MY UTERUS!You can't have it both ways.

Ricki Baker, Naples

In Kathleen Passidomos blog about current legislative events, she reports that Senate President Wilton Simpson stated (we want Florida to) succeed without the heavy hand of the government telling (us) how to live.

And yet he IS the government and this Florida Legislature is considering a 15-week abortion ban for all women in the state. How is this not heavy-handed?

Lets be clear, this is very heavy-handed and totally hypocritical.

Jane Graham, Naples

Recent letters to the editor have claimed that President Biden is "the worst president in our history."The objective criteria for such profundity?Inflation is the highest ever (patently false), empty grocery shelves (not close to reality),Afghanistan (where four U.S. presidents have struggled with policy), and vaccine mandates (where the health of the population has become a cultural issue).

Have we become a country where the idea of shelling out $15 more on a tank of gas for our Audi SUVs requires pangs of sorrow from the rest of the world?Has the face of Americanow become a bunch of whiners, complaining about the sad situation where the grocery story is out of Raisin Bran and we have to settle for Cheerios?Is it really fair to condemn the current president for the tragedy of the Afghanistan exit, when four other U.S. presidents had presided over the inconvenient truth of the horrific loss of American and Afghan lives for 20 years?And finally, can a president be faulted for the cultural wars over vaccine mandates, when his sole purpose has been the well-being of the population in whose service he governs?

At least now we have president who actually governs. He engages his adversaries with respect; he passes legislation which will assist all Americans and not just the select few; and, amazingly, he has compassion and empathy for those he serves.

When a sitting president incites a mob to destroy the seat of U.S. democracy, watcheshis followers in their attempt to overturn a presidential election, and takes no action to stop the violence; those would be some valid criteria for the "worst president in our history."

Manny Cacciola, Fort Myers

To blame Biden for all the ills in our country conveniently forgets that inflation is worldwide, supply issues are worldwide, gas price hikes are worldwide. As much as I like Joe I dont think his reach extends that far. Many, if not most of these problems, are due to the pandemic, which doesnt seem to want to disappear when politicians wave their fairy dust. Dont forget to blame him when Russia invades Ukraine;after all, its his sons fault.

Philip Wyckoff, Fort Myers

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Letters to the editor for Sunday, January 23, 2022 - News-Press

In the year since a mob of former President Donald Trump's supporters ransacked the US Capitol, America's political divisions have only grown deeper. Democrats and Republicans alike must recognize that without measures to shore up democracy at home, the country's international standing and security will continue to erode.

WASHINGTON, DC The anniversary of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has come and gone, and many Americans are deeply depressed that the countrys political divide has only deepened. Though most Republican Party leaders condemned the attack at the time, the GOP has since internalized former President Donald Trumps web of lies and falsehoods about the 2020 election, which he lost by seven million votes. Republicans have largely refused even to participate in the congressional investigation into the matter.

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A year after a sitting president tried to overturn the results of a fair and lawful election, the effort to identify and prosecute those responsible now must compete for attention with other security crises: Russian troops massing near Ukraine; Iran nearing the threshold of nuclear breakout; and humanitarian catastrophes in Afghanistan and Yemen. Faced with all this, American leaders will be tempted to draw a bright line between home and abroad. But doing so would be both risky and wrong.

Americas profound polarization reflects a society whose members no longer share a core understanding of what it means to be secure. Americans tend to have widely divergent experiences across racial, religious, and gender lines with US domestic security institutions. Trust in the US military and security forces used to be consistently high; now, it is falling, alongside trust in the rest of Americas government institutions. Americans no longer agree about who or what constitutes a threat, with Democrats much more likely to cite internal cohesion and political violence, and Republicans more concerned with traditional nation-state foes. Moreover, Americans are divided by ideology and age over whether people and ideas from elsewhere are an opportunity or a threat.

These divisions, and the resulting policy gridlock, would be bad enough in isolation. But the rest of the world is watching, and it sees a society that cannot agree on what democracy is, or on who belongs to the demos. In the World Banks Combined Polity Score index, the US has been downgraded from a longstanding score of ten, the highest for a democracy, to a five, meaning it is on the verge of anocracy: a democracy with authoritarian characteristics.

Around the world, those who have been inspired by leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., are now haunted by images of the Confederate flag being waved in the halls of Congress. Allies whose ties to the US go back to World War II now see US elected officials embracing Holocaust deniers. Neither friend nor foe believes that the US can or will deliver on its long-term promises anymore, whether in the realm of vaccine distribution, climate accords, or nuclear deals.

If you are American and this description sounds exaggerated, you should look to your northern neighbor. In Canada, with which the US shares the worlds longest unfortified border, top media outlets marked the January 6 anniversary with a debate over, What to do about the likely unraveling of democracy in the United States. Back at home, American political scientist Barbara Walter, a leading global expert on civil wars, writes in a new book, Most Americans cannot imagine another civil war in their country. But this is because they dont know how civil wars start.

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Americans need to recognize that the erosion of their democracy is as much a foreign-policy matter as it is a domestic one. Those Republicans and Democrats who are still willing to work together on key international issues need to accept that this also requires working together to shore up core democratic norms at home.

Those norms are foundational to everything the US wants to achieve abroad. At a minimum, they include a rejection of violence and hate speech, strong protections for voting rights, and non-partisan election administration. Conservatives who urge the Biden administration to act tougher abroad should stop to consider what constant right-wing harping about the Big Steal looks like to the rest of the world. US leaders from across the political spectrum could send a far more compelling message by demonstrating a willingness to repair the cracks in American democracy. The capacity to do that has historically been one of Americas greatest strengths.

After all, we have been here before. A half-century ago, American democracy was tested by a president who was forced to resign and by a security establishment that misled the country into a catastrophic war. This prompted a broad effort to address systemic flaws. And while the solutions were imperfect, they nonetheless succeeded in restoring the prestige of US institutions for the next four decades both at home and abroad.

What might such an effort look like now? Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, recently mustered the courage to buck Trump, telling ABC News: The election was fair, as fair as we have seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency. That is a good start. But without progress in tackling the full range of problems with US elections who gets to vote and how the votes are counted neither Republicans nor Democrats can hold their heads high in the court of global public opinion.

The responsibility doesnt lie only with Congress, of course. In its Interim National Security Strategic Guidance published last March, President Bidens administration made clear that, our role in the world depends upon our strength and vitality here at home. Since then, Biden has signed bills and implemented policies allocating billions of dollars to research and development in strategic industries, physical infrastructure, and a better social infrastructure.

Again, that is a good start. But suppose the administration took its own logic a step further and declared openly that threats to our democracy are also threats to our security? The Director of National Intelligence has already warned that violent political extremism a euphemism for domestic terrorism poses a greater risk to Americans than Islamist terrorism does.

With Americas crumbling political norms and violence-tinged factionalism, is it any wonder that only 17% of the worlds democracies view the US as a country to emulate? It is time for Americans, or at very least those who aim to represent the US in the world, to see themselves as others do, without excuses and rationalizations.

Continued here:

US Security in the Shadow of Insurrection by Anne-Marie Slaughter & Heather Hurlburt - Project Syndicate

Note: This analysis first published in Mississippi Todays weekly legislative newsletter.Subscribe to our free newsletterfor exclusive early access to weekly analyses.

Sen. Derrick Simmons sensed his Black colleagues were growing more and more frustrated.

During Jan. 21 debate of a bill that seeks to ban the teaching of critical race theory, white senators were arguing that the existence of systemic racism was a subjective myth. They argued that Mississippi children should not be taught about how racism permeates society, that the teaching of racism was similar to the teachings of Karl Marx.

The personal, emotional pleas of Black senators during the debate were being ignored by their powerful white colleagues.

So Simmons, a Black man from the Mississippi Delta who serves as the Senate Democratic leader, hatched an idea. One by one, he approached the desks of his 13 Black colleagues and got their approval.

When the vote for final passage was called, Simmons stood up and requested a roll call vote. That meant instead of a typical voice vote, each senator would be called upon individually to vote yea or nay.

As the Senate clerk began calling the roll, all 14 Black senators stood up and walked off the floor. The decision by Black senators all Democrats to walk out ultimately meant nothing for the final outcome since Republicans alone have enough members to pass any bill they want. But the symbolism of their decision ran deep.

In the state with the most sordid and violent history of racism, Black lawmakers employed a principal strategy of the civil rights movement organizing a walkout to protest passage of a bill that threatened the teaching of that very history.

It was an unprecedented moment in Mississippi history. In 1993, Black caucus members left before then-Gov. Kirk Fordice delivered his State of the State speech in protest of his policies. But no Capitol observer can recall an instance of members walking out in protest before a vote on a bill.

The greatness of America is the right to protest for what you think is right, Simmons told Mississippi Today. Together we believed that this was the right thing to do, to walk out. So thats what we did. We decided that nonsense wasnt worth our votes.

READ MORE: Every Black Mississippi senator walked out as white colleagues voted to ban critical race theory

One great irony: It couldve been a historic day for such different reasons.

A few minutes after the critical race theory bill passed, the Senate passed what would be the largest pay raise for public school teachers in decades a critical moment for the nations lowest-paid educators.

The teacher pay plan was Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemanns top legislative priority in 2022, one he and his staff had worked on for months. Hosemann, who did not preside over the debate of either bill on Friday, sent a press release following the eventful day touting passage of that bill.

But Hosemann garnered few accolades about his teacher pay plan on Friday because the Black senators had complete control of the narrative of the day.

They owned the headlines across Mississippi, and television stations across the state led with B-roll of their walkout on primetime news. The walkout went national and international. Simmons appeared Saturday on MSNBC to discuss the implications of the bill and the historic decision by Black lawmakers to skip the vote.

The people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school are now upset that their grandchildren might learn that they threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school, Simmons said. To improve Mississippi and America, the truth must be told. White children, Black children, my children, your children should hear the history of slavery, the civil rights movement, the uncontrolled killing of Black Americans. They should hear that history and decide they want to make Mississippi a better place together.

Simmons continued: Racism is part of our history. We have to acknowledge it exists, and we have to talk about it.

Several Black senators went to the well before the final vote, laying out clearly where they stood on the bill and what they thought of its passing.

There are 14 Black senators in this chamber, and these 14 are telling you that this bill is morally wrong, said Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton. Yet you ignore the thoughts, positions of these 14 members of this body. So it must be something if all 14 of us feel or think that something is wrong with this bill.

Perhaps the most powerful plea made from the floor was from Sen. David Jordan, a freedom fighter during the movement. The 88-year-old Jordan taught for 33 years in Mississippi public schools and 20 of them in integrated public schools.

As Jordan put it, many white Mississippians didnt want him teaching their children. But he taught them the way hed taught all his students: by providing facts, science and truth.

Its sad weve wasted so much time on something thats not necessary, Jordan said from the floor before the vote. Mississippi has come a long way together. If anybody has suffered from racism, its people of color. We feel that we dont need this bill. We are satisfied without it; what do you need it for? We have been the victims of it (racism). We cannot continue, Christian friends, stumbling into the future backwards. Thats what this bill does for us. We have more important things to do. We need to show more cohesiveness and progress.

1) The consideration of critical race theory legislation stands to jeopardize relationships between white and Black legislative leaders.

In the Blackest state in America, where a major constituency is often ignored or left behind by policy passed in Jackson, these relationships are a very big deal. Black leaders have continued to project good will toward white leaders following the June 2020 state flag change. After decades of effort from Black lawmakers, white leaders finally chose to work with their Black colleagues to change the flag, the last in the nation featuring the Confederate battle emblem.

You couldnt help but to feel good after what we did together in June 2020, Simmons said. You had this mindset as a Mississippian that we can move forward in a spirit of being inclusive, not exclusive. And then here we are less than two years later, we allow what goes on in the nation (critical race theory debate) to come into the state to divide us. We had so much hope and optimism after the flag. But on Friday, you almost feel completely deflated.

2) What will the House do?

The Senate critical race theory bill was relatively mild compared to legislation proposed in other states. And the House is led by Speaker Philip Gunn, who has made his intention to address critical race theory very well known. Will the House bill be more restrictive in terms of what Mississippi teachers can or cant teach? Having seen the broad public outcry from the Senate vote, will House leaders accept the Senate version and move on to other issues?

Black caucus members in the House have a big head start now to prepare for how theyll respond to whatever happens. The debate will almost certainly be more dramatic in the House, where pretty much everything is more dramatic.

3) Is this all worth it?

This push to ban critical race theory is rooted in national political rhetoric a red meat issue pushed by out-of-state interest groups. Republican Sen. Mike McLendon, the bills author who defended it on the floor last week, said himself that his constituents pushed the issue based on what they saw on Fox News. McLendon nor any other politician can point to a single instance of critical race theory being taught in the state a fact confirmed by state education officials.

White Republicans are pushing this bill knowing definitively that it will hurt their relationships with Black colleagues and their Black constituents. That harm cuts deep, and it will linger for a long time. In November 2023, when those Republican lawmakers are running for reelection, will their constituents remember or even care about this hot-button issue thats gotten play on Fox News in recent weeks?

4) Mississippi teachers are, once again, caught in the middle of a major political fight at the Capitol.

Another great irony of all this is white legislative leaders are simultaneously pushing massive pay raise proposals for teachers while effectively telling them what they can and cannot teach. That reality could stand to further sow distrust of lawmakers among educators, who already deeply distrust lawmakers.

There are more than 30,000 educators (plus their families and loved ones) in Mississippi. Thats a major voting bloc that could remember all this when legislative and statewide elections come up in 2023.

Central to our mission at Mississippi Today is inspiring civic engagement. We think critically about how we can foster healthy dialogue between people who think differently about government and politics. We believe that conversation raw, earnest talking and listening to better understand each other is vital to the future of Mississippi. We encourage you to engage with us and each other on our social media accounts, email our reporters directly or leave a comment for our editor by clicking the button below.

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by Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today January 24, 2022

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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How Black senators controlled the narrative on a historic day at the Capitol - Mississippi Today